by Simon Brown
Jenrosa stiffened.
'The lesson was over,' she said and nodded to Lasthear who got up, bowed and retreated. In her place stepped Lynan. His face was without emotion of any kind. Jenrosa thought he looked at her the way he might a perfect stranger.
'I want you to come with me,' he said.
Jenrosa stood up and dusted soot from her hands. 'Where are we going?'
'You're going to tell Eynon about your vision,' he said.
She stared at him. 'But last night you said—'
'You were right,' Lynan said abruptly. 'He needs to make a choice.'
'What's happened?' she asked suspiciously. 'What's changed?'
'As you so told me last night, Eynon will find out eventually. I want him to find out now.' He turned and walked off without waiting to see whether or not she followed. Reluctantly, she did.
They found Eynon with the warriors of his Horse Clan at the western edge of the Chett camp, busy sharpening thousands of sections of roughly hewn branches at both ends. When finished, the branches would be driven into the ground and linked with longer transverse sections to make a stake fence that would completely encircle Daavis.
'When do you want us to storm the city walls, your Majesty?' Eynon asked loudly so his men could hear. 'You can send the other clans and banners home, you know. The Horse Clan will take care of this for you.'
His warriors cheered.
They really believe they can, Jenrosa thought.
Lynan smiled thinly. 'We have some news,' he told Eynon. 'We need to talk.'
'Oh?' Eynon gave the branch he had been working on to a warrior and led the way to his tent. It was hot and stuffy inside and Jenrosa felt nauseous.
'Jenrosa has seen something using her magik,' Lynan said. 'You need to know about it.'
Eynon looked at her curiously; and slowly, the words only coming from her reluctantly, she told the chief about her vision.
Eynon's face went pale and his eyes wide. 'How… how sure are you?'
'Very,' Lynan said for her.
Jenrosa glanced at him. She was certain about the accuracy of her vision, but she did not like Lynan speaking for her. Eynon saw her expression and looked doubtfully at her.
'But you can't be sure,' he said, his voice almost pleading.
'I'm sorry, Eynon, but I think a great tragedy has befallen your clan.'
Eynon opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. At last he managed to ask Jenrosa, 'Their pennant. You mentioned the enemy had a strange pennant.'
'It carried the device of a bird, but not one I recognised.'
'Yes, it would be,' he said.
'You know who the enemy was?' Lynan said.
'My clan's territory borders the great desert.'
'The Southern Chetts! Of course!'
'You in the east call them that. We call them the Saranah. It was once the name of their clan.'
'They were originally from the Oceans of Grass?' Lynan asked, astounded.
'Yes. Perhaps the largest of all the clans. They were butchers and raiders. Eventually all their neighbouring clans combined to drive them away, into the desert. Occasionally Saranah war bands will return to the Oceans of Grass to raid a lightly protected herd, but they've never invaded in the numbers necessary to take on a whole clan.' He nodded to Jenrosa. 'Your vision shows you true, magiker. I believe what you have told me.'
'Then you have to make a choice,' Lynan said.
'What choice?' Eynon asked. 'I have to go back and find any survivors and hunt down—'
'You have to make a choice,' Lynan said more loudly, speaking over him. 'First, to go back immediately and look for survivors. Do that and I will have to retreat from Daavis. In fact, I'll have to retreat back to Haxus or even back to the Oceans of Grass.'
'Your Majesty, I'm sorry, but I must go back—'
'Which means the Algonka Pass will fall under the Kingdom's control. If the Kingdom controls the pass then they can send an army into the Oceans of Grass next summer and every Chett clan will meet the fate of your own. Your second choice is to stay here and help me take Daavis, after which you can go back to your home, search for survivors and hunt down the enemy who did this to your people.'
'But the delay would be too long!' Eynon declared. 'How long do you think the siege can last? At least a month? Maybe until next winter!'
'The siege will be over in two weeks, with the help of you and your clan.'
'How can you promise that?' Eynon demanded.
'There is a weakness in the walls surrounding the city. We can take advantage of that.'
'That's a task for those clever wrights from Haxus you've brought with you, not my warriors.'
Lynan nodded curtly. 'I know. But to make sure Charion does not detect what we are planning, her attention must be diverted entirely to some other threat.'
'Ah,' Eynon said and laughed softly. 'Which is why you want me and my warriors.'
Lynan did not reply.
'You know, it's funny, but my warriors really believe they could storm Daavis and win through.' He came closer to Lynan and slowly, almost diffidently, put a finger against his chest. 'But you know different, I'm bound. And I'm no fool.'
'I would not be here if I thought you were a fool.'
Eynon stepped back. 'I will consider this.'
'If we take Daavis, I will place under your command three troops of my Red Hands and three of the lancers to help you track down the Saranah who attacked your people. And I will make sure every head of cattle you lost is replaced from the herds of the other clans.'
Eynon's eyes widened. 'You would do this for me?'
'I will not allow the Horse Clan to die under my reign.'
Eynon looked at his hands as if searching for some sign there of his own fate. 'I hope I live long enough to see you keep that promise.'
'You used me,' Jenrosa said to Lynan as they walked back.
Lynan did not answer.
'You used me to get your way with Eynon.'
'You wanted to tell him what you saw in your vision.'
'But not for this! Not to convince him to throw what's left of his clan against the walls of Daavis!'
'He is helping to guarantee his clan will survive into the future, and that there will be an Oceans of Grass under the control of the Chetts for them to live on.'
'You are throwing away their lives.'
Lynan stopped and grabbed her arms.
'You're hurting me!' she cried. She stared defiantly into his eyes, but something there made her turn away.
'Listen to me, Jenrosa. I am at war with my sister for the throne of Grenda Lear, and the Chetts, for good or ill, have thrown their support behind me. They are my strongest weapon and I will use them, knowing that if I fail the cost for all of us, including the Chetts, will be terrible. I know that many of these warriors will die and that some clans may never recover from the war. I cannot help that any more. What I can do is ensure our side wins.' He turned her around so she could see the entire Chett camp. 'Look at them, Jenrosa. For the first time in their history the fate of Grenda Lear depends on their courage and determination. Do you really think they will throw that away?'
He let her go and strode away from her.
'What choice do they have under you?' she called after him. 'What choice do any of us have under you?'
Without stopping or turning he said: 'The same choice as Eynon: to leave.'
An arrow missed Ager's ear by a finger's span. He cursed and ducked behind a wooden board placed in front of the shallow trench he was walking along. He found himself facing someone's bottom and he pushed it aside.
'Careful, you fool,' the owner of the bottom said.
'Careful who you call a fool,' Ager returned.
The other, a Haxan officer, turned around, saw who it was and paled. 'Sorry.'
An arrow thudded into the board. Both men winced with the sound of it.
'It's just that I have an aversion to arrows. I don't think I'd enjoy being struck by one.'
'Take my word for it,' Ager said, pointing to the empty socket where he used to have an eye. 'You wouldn't.'
The Haxan shuddered. 'Forgive me for asking, but what are you doing here?'
'I was about to ask you the same question.'
'Digging.'
'Who gave you orders to dig?'
'I'm a sapper. What else would you have me do?'
Ager had no immediate answer to that. 'What are you digging?'
The Haxan pointed further down the trench where other sappers were huddling behind boards. 'We're trying to find the entrances to the tunnels we started when we were last here.'
'Isn't that a little risky? I thought the enemy would have found and collapsed them or set traps in them by now.'
'Some, but not all. We hid them as best we could before King Salokan ordered our retreat. We knew it would save us a lot of work later on if he decided to return.' Another arrow rattled the board. 'And maybe some lives.'
'Who are you?' Ager asked.
'Captain Waylong. I already know who you are.'
'Prince Lynan has put me in charge of you and yours Captain Waylong. I want a mine under the north wall, especially the section near the main gate.'
'We tried that last time. Didn't work then.'
'You wrought better than you know. There is a serious weakness there, and badly repaired in Charion's haste to prepare for a second siege.'
Waylong showed surprise. 'Really?'
'I have seen it for myself. If you can set off a mine underneath it, it will all come down. If we're lucky, the gatehouse will come down with it.'
'You'd have to be bloody lucky,' Waylong said, then remembered who he was talking to. 'Excuse me, sir.'
'Who's the senior officer here?'
'It was Yerman, sir, but earlier this morning he didn't duck fast enough. Under him there were three of us captains.'
'Well, you're senior officer from today. I give my orders to you, and you make sure they're carried out.'
Waylong looked skeptically at the crookback. 'Well and good, sir.'
'You don't look too happy about the promotion.'
'Depends, if you don't mind my being blunt.'
'Depends on what?'
'On whether you're the kind to take advice.'
Ager peered at him with his one eye and Waylong swallowed.
'What kind of advice?'
'That you let us dig more trenches before we start the mining.'
'What do you need more trenches for?'
'We'll zigzag them towards the walls, sir, so your Chett archers can get close enough to shoot at their archers. That will make things go faster down here.'
'How long do you need?'
'Two days.'
'And then you start on the mining?'
'Yes. With your Chetts giving us cover, we can move out the dirt from tunnelling twice as fast. We'll be under the walls in ten days.'
Ager nodded. 'I'll send you the Chetts you need.' He turned to go back to the safety of the main camp, stopped and said: 'By the way, Captain Waylong, the Chetts assigned to you will be under your command. Make sure they realise that.'
Waylong swallowed again, so hard his throat bobbed. 'Chetts under my command, sir?'
'That's what I said.'
'Thank you, sir.'
'Don't thank me. You're responsible for their safety as well as the safety of your own sappers. Understand?'
'Um, yes, sir.'
On the second day of the siege of Daavis, Korigan rode up and down the stake fence that now surrounded the city. She talked to banner commanders and clan chiefs on the way, getting a feeling for the morale of the Chetts and their leaders. When she came to the Red Hands, Gudon joined her for the rest of the tour. By midday they had finished and the pair rode to a gentle hill near the centre of the line that allowed them to look towards the north wall of the city.
Korigan dismounted, fidgeted with the girth straps on her saddle, remounted and fidgeted with her sword belt and bow string and poncho. Gudon watched her for a while, then said: 'What ails you, cousin? Did you sit on a branch from a thorn tree?'
'I don't know what you mean,' she answered irritably, fiddling with the reins.
'You don't like being in the same place for too long.'
'It's not that,' she said, then shook her head. 'Yes, it's that. I'm used to getting up in the morning and moving the army to the next camp site. The only time a Chett is at one place for more than a day is in winter at the High Sooq. But this is summer! We should be moving.' She faced him. 'Don't you feel it?'
'What ails you goes deeper than that.'
'The Chetts have never carried out a siege before. Nor an assault. I don't know that we're ready for this.'
'We have to be ready at some time. You have put us behind Lynan, and he intends to take the east, and the east is filled with cities, some of them with bigger walls that Daavis.'
Korigan turned away from Gudon and her whole body tensed. 'Gudon, did I do the right thing? Have I made a terrible mistake?'
'I remember having this conversation with Kayakun, your spy in the Strangers' Sooq,' he said.
'What did you say to him?'
'That Lynan will make the Chetts the equal of any other people on the continent of Theare.'
Korigan snorted. 'We already knew that.'
'No. We believed it. We told ourselves that. But we knew we had never been tested. During the Slaver War it was the east and its armies that saved us from the mercenaries. Well, now we will know if we were right to believe it. We have defeated the mercenaries sent against us, in Haxus we have defeated Grenda Lear's oldest and most determined foe, and now we test ourselves against the Kingdom itself.'
'For the second time,' she reminded him. 'We lost to them the first time, remember?'
'Did we?'
'We retreated from the field. We lost Kumul Alarn.'
'And the enemy retreated to its burrow which we now encircle. We hurt them more than we knew, and we recovered the quickest.'
'We still haven't met the full force of the Kingdom,' she said grimly. 'They can raise an army so big it would take a week for it to pass through the Algonka Pass. My father told me of such an army.'
'I know; it was created by Usharna and led by General Elynd Chisal. With it the General finally smashed Haxus and the mercenaries. Don't forget, Korigan, that Lynan is Elynd Chisal's son.'
'How could I forget? He is the White Wolf, isn't he?'
'Who needs to know?' Gudon asked gently. 'Queen Korigan of all the Chetts, or Korigan, Lynan's lover?'
She looked at him sharply. 'Who else knows?'
'Everyone, of course.'
Korigan blushed. 'What do… what do my people say?'
'About time.'
They both grinned then.
'Do you love him?' he asked.
Korigan nodded. 'Yes. I have for many months, but was afraid to do anything about it. I had to make sure.'
'That it was the right thing to do for your people?'
'Yes.'
'Then trust your judgement now. Lynan is the king we have been waiting for.'
Korigan laughed. 'It's strange, isn't it? I am his consort. I have placed in his hands the fate of my people. I love him. And yet I must be the only one among us who doubts him.'
Gudon frowned. 'You are not the only one. Ager has his doubts, as does Jenrosa.'
'His own companions? How can they doubt him after all they have been through together?'
'They have seen him change. They believe he is not the old Lynan they knew, and they are unsure of what he has become.'
'And you, cousin? You have no doubts?'
Gudon shook his head. 'Not since that night we almost died at the hands of Rendle's mercenaries. He returned to fight to the end with me and Ager and Kumul. He loved us more than he loved his own life.'
'But that was before Jenrosa gave him the blood of Silona. He is not the same now as he was then.'
'His heart is the same and his soul i
s still his own. What else matters?'
Jenrosa was pacing up and down outside her tent, Ager watching her anxiously. 'I don't know what he has become, but I don't recognise him any more.'
Ager caught the eye of Lasthear, who had brought him to Jenrosa, and indicated she should leave. She bowed and departed, leaving no one else within earshot.
'Jenrosa, calm down,' he said patiently.
'Calm down?' she cried, stopping to face him. 'God, Ager! Do you know what he is planning to do?'
'I assume by "he" you mean Lynan—'
'Who else?'
'—and what in particular has he done that has you so excited?'
She beat her hands in the air as if she was trying to beat some invisible enemy. 'He's convinced Eynon to assault Daavis so he can try some deception or ploy against one of the city walls!'
Ager breathed heavily through his nose. So Lynan had gone ahead and done that. But he has his reasons. He must have his reasons. 'Someone has to create a diversion for the main attack, Jenrosa,' he said reasonably, trying to convince himself as much as her.
'But why the Horse Clan?'
'Why not the Horse Clan?'
'You mean Lynan didn't tell you?'
Ager looked at her blankly. 'What are you talking about?'
She held her head between her hands. 'I… I can't tell you. You should ask Lynan…'
Ager went to Jenrosa and took her hands in his own. He caught her gaze and held it. 'What is it, Jenrosa? What has driven you to this state? Why are you so afraid of Lynan all of a sudden?'
She pulled herself out of his grip. 'It isn't sudden, Ager. And it's what he's doing that scares me. The old Lynan, the Lynan we knew before we met Silona, would never have done the things he's contemplating doing now.'
'Like what?'
'The blood,' she said hoarsely. 'All the blood. I see it every time I do magik. I see it on my hands, I see it in my dreams. And I see her, I see her together with Lynan.'
Ager let her go, suddenly afraid, and retreated a step. 'But you are unsure about the magik. You've said so yourself—'
'Call Lasthear back! She'll tell you. I'm their fucking Truespeaker! Did you know that? They all think I'm like Gudon's mother. I'm the prize that only comes once every second generation! I can do things no one has been able to do for twenty years. I can make the water tell stories, I can conjure vampires in fire, I can make the earth run red with blood—'
